The company obtained an additional mining lease from the Western Australian government in July.

It also recently completed a heritage impact assessment survey for traditional owners, paving the way for authorities to approve the start of mining operations.

Peter McNally, managing director of IBDH, told the ABC, “We have a fairly extensive gravel passage there to mine, and in a few weeks we should be allowed to start commercial mining where these high-quality diamonds are located.

"I am quite confident that it will be approved and we hope to start mining in September."

Ellendale opened in 1976 and is located 135 kilometers east of Derby in West Kimberley; after the iconic Argyle mine closed in November 2020, it is one of Australia’s only two viable diamond mines, and the Northern Territory The Merlin mining area is tied.

It used to supply about 50% of the world’s yellow diamonds, McNally explained: “They are not as rare as pink, red or blue diamonds [but] yellow diamonds may still be the most popular colored diamonds.

"We will seek to learn from Argyle's experience and how they can teach the world to sell diamonds."

Another mining company operating in Ellendale at the Burgundy Diamond Mine (BDM) in Perth has similar plans.

Peter Ravenscroft, managing director of BDM, has stated that the company wants to follow the Argyle "template": "We will consider renaming them, and possibly even changing the names of Ellendale diamonds and bringing them to the market," he told ABC.

BDM is currently building a batch sampling plant, and it is expected that "smaller and more mobile" production will begin in the fourth quarter of 2022.

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